Lost: After Season 3
by lockdown111
Summary: Basically, this story picks up right where Season 3 finale left us. It is my version of what Season 4 would be like. Who are the people on the 'rescue ship? What do they want? What is the fate our castaways?
1. Aftermath

**Chapter/Episode 4x01: Aftermath**

**No-one centric**

"When are you coming?" asked Jack.

"We'll be there in a couple of hours," replied the voice from the other side of the SAT phone.

"Okay then, see you in a few hours."

* * *

Everyone was ecstatic at the radio tower. Jack had just finished calling the rescue boat. Jack scanned everyone's faces, they were all happy and hugging each other. It was a moment of joy and triumph for everyone, which they had not had since the day they crashed on the island. Jack had never seen these people so happy, atleast not on the island. He turned over to Kate and handed her the SAT phone and the Walkie-talkie.

"What's this about?" asked Kate smiling.

"I need you to have this in case they call again," replied Jack as he strapped on his backpack.

"Why are you giving me this? Where are you going?" asked Kate.

"I'm going to tie up a few loose ends," replied Jack looking at Kate affectionately in the eye, "and set a few things straight."

"You can't leave like-" Before Kate could finish the sentence Jack kissed her on the cheek. Kate blushed and stared at her for a few moments. She looked as Jack turned away from her to address the whole group.

"I want everyone's attention here for a minute, I am leaving to complete some work," he directed, "In the mean time Rousseau is going to lead everyone back to the beach. I want everyone to follow her and stay at the beach till the rescue comes."

"Where are you going?" asked Sun.

"I don't know," replied Jack, "It doesn't matter anyways. But I'll be back."

"What about him?" asked Rousseau pointing at Ben.

"Take him with you to the beach. Don't kill him. He might be useful later."

"See you all later," said Jack as moved towards the tree line and disappeared into the jungle.

* * *

Inside the Looking Glass Desmond stared at Charlie's dead body floating in the jamming room. Tears brimmed in his eyes. He was distraught; he did not even want to leave. _It's all my fault, _he thought_, had I not told Charlie about these flashes he would have never thought to sacrifice himself like this. _Desmond collapsed to the ground and started thinking about the good times he had with Charlie. He teared up once again. Suddenly Desmond heard footsteps, someone walking in from the other side of the station. Desmond did not even care to hide, if he died so be it. The person was wearing a dark elegant suit and a blue tie. It was Charlie.

"Hello Desmond," Charlie said.

"Charlie?" Desmond stood up in shock, "You di-"

"I'm dead, Desmond," Charlie said smugly, "You made a mistake."

"I'm sorry, brother. I tried to save your life but you cannot change the future and-"

"But you did change the future Des. And now every single one of us is going to die. You should have listened to what the ring lady said."

"Wha-"

"Stop moping Desmond you have to close this can of worms you just opened."

"I don't understand what you are-"

"Get out of this station; go back to the beach, right now," saying this Charlie stared walking towards where he came from and disappeared.

* * *

Danielle was leading everyone to the beach pulling Ben by his rope. Besides her was Alex who was looking at her from he corner of her eye.

"What?" asked Danielle.

"huh" stammered Alex.

"You have been looking at me like that for the past 8 hours that we've been walking. I thought you might have a question."

"uhm… yeah.. err... I wanted to know if Ben is my dad"

"Him?" Danielle shot a disgusted look at Ben, "No."

"Alex, listen to me," interjected Ben, "I'm sorry that I lied to you, but I need you to know that whatever I did, I did it for you. I did it to-"

"Shut up. I don't want to listen to anything you have to say," saying this Alex ran of to the back of the group along with Karl.

"Danielle," spoke Ben calmly, "You do know the reason we took Alex, don't you?"

"The only reason I haven't knocked you out yet is because I don't want to carry you. So unless you wish to have a gag in your mouth shut up."

A little behind them, Kate was walking with Claire and Sun.

"Claire, he is going to be okay. He turned the jammer off, that means he is ok," said Kate.

"You don't know that Kate. There was something about him when he left that didn't just feel right."

"I know this kind of stuff can be hard but you need to stop worrying."

"Can I have the Walkie-talkie?"

"Sure," said kate as she took the Walkie-talkie out of her pocket and handed it over to Claire.

Claire carefully handed over Aaron to Sun and took the Walkie-talkie from Kate. She pushed a button.

"Is anyone there?" she spoke.

"Hey, Claire this is Hurley," a ruffled voice came from the other side.

"Hurley, is Charlie back yet?"

"No, but I'm sure he's fine. Sayid said that he and Desmond probably decided camp somewhere else for the time being. They did not know if our plan worked or not so they must have decided to stay away from the beach in case the others were still here."

"Thanks Hurley," said Claire in a disappointed voice and handed over the Walkie-talkie to Kate.

"Hurley is Sayid there?" asked Kate.

"Yeah, I 'l get him," came the voice from the other side.

After a couple of minutes of silence Sayid came on the other side.

"Kate?"

"Sayid, did you see any signs of the rescue boat."

"No, none at all."

"I think something is wrong. They told jack that they'll be at the beach within 2 hours. It's been 8 hours now."

"I'm sure they are trying to lock our location, does Jack have the SAT phone on?"

"Jack is not here."

"What?"

"He left; he went towards the jungle just after making the call."

"And you did not ask him where he was going?"

"He wouldn't tell us. He said he'd be back soon."

"Well, lets hope so. Make sure you keep the SAT phone on. Sometimes it can take hours pinpointing the correct location through these phones."

"Okay. Is Sawyer there?" asked Kate hesitantly.

"Yes, he is on the other side drinking beer with Bernard. Should I call him?"

"No, don't," said Kate quickly, "We'll be at the beach in a few hours."

* * *

Locke sat down beside the flowing stream to rest for a while. He looked at his reflection in the water. Sunlight flowing through the cracks in leaves was shining on his face. His wound had almost disappeared. He looked frustrated. _What do I do now?_ he thought as he threw a stone at the tree in front of him in anger. Just then he felt something hard and cold smack against the back of his head, he was knocked out.

Locke woke up. He slowly opened his eyes. At first everything was blurry but slowly everything started coming into focus. He was still in the jungle but now it was night. His arms were all scratched up. His shirt had blood on it. Everything around him was burning. Jack lay in front of him. He was bleeding badly his hands were burned. His face was pale as if all the life had been sucked out of him. He saw what looked like Desmond and Hurley carrying Claire and running off with urgency. There were screams all around the place. He could not make what any of them were saying. He stood up and moved towards Jack, Jack was barely breathing. Locke lifted him up in an attempt to carry him. Jack was bleeding badly, his chest was like it had had been pierced by several sharp swords. He managed to move Jack in the direction he saw Hurley & Desmond go. He heard the babbling of a water stream. There was a thick layer of black fog covering the island. Locke could also hear the thunder of clouds and see the occasional lightning. Carefully avoiding all the fires he moved across the tree line in front of the stream. But there was no water there. It was a black liquid in which bubbles were popping. Across the stream Boone was standing unaffected by all the chaos around him.

"You're not supposed to be here John, you have to follow your path that was a-"

Before he could complete the sentence a large ball of fire fell from the sky into the flowing black liquid. Locke jumped out of the way into the surrounding trees to avoid it. Jack and Locke both lay on the ground now. Locke saw clouds of fire rising on the horizon. He tried to look for Boone but he was nowhere to be found. Jack was now breathing heavily. He turned his head and looked at Locke.

"Locke," he mumbled, "You shouldn't be here."

"Jack," Locke asked, "What the hell is going on here?"

Jack laughed at the question " '_What's going on here?_' That's the question isn't it John?"

Jack tried to get up but fell down. "Locke," he said panting "I want you to kill me."

"What?? No… you're not in the right state of mind-"

"I'm in a damn right state of mind!" yelled Jack, "I let all of this happen. All of our people are god knows where. Look at me, I'm barely alive. I can't live like this John. Put me out of my misery. If you can't then give me your gun"

"Jack, whatever happened here, we're gonna get through it. You're the last person who should be giving up. Now tell me what is happening?"

Jack did not reply he just fell unconscious. Frustrated Locke hit the ground hard. He looked at the sky with frustrated eyes. _What am I supposed to do? Why am I here? _Then he noticed a large ball of purplish light in the sky, the light was growing bigger and bigger until he realized that it was falling down.

"Jack move!" he screamed as he jumped out of the way to avoid the falling light.

Locke opened his eyes again. This time it was day. He did not have any scratches on his arms; he did not have any blood on his shirt. Scorching sun shone down on his eyes. He was lying besides a large tree. He could hear the chirping of birds which sounded like Beethoven after the nightmare he had just gone through and in front of him stood Jack. Unscathed, unscratched and without a single drop of blood on him.

"Hello, John," he said as he pointed a gun at Locke's head.

"What are you doing, Jack?" asked Locke.

"Why?" roared Jack.

"Why? What?"

"Why did you kill her?" asked Jack as he brought his gun right to Locke's head. His eyes were full of rage. "Why did you kill Naomi?"

"She represented nothing but trouble," said Locke in a matter of fact way.

"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?"

"The island told me."

"The island told you to kill that woman huh?" remarked Jack sarcastically.

"The island to me to do whatever was necessary to stop you from calling that ship," snapped Locke as he stood up, "Obviously, I failed."

"No John I failed. Today, you crossed the line. I should have dealt with you long ago, the day Boone died because of you-"

"Boone was the sacrifice that the island-"

"SHUT UP!!" yelled Jack at top of his lungs as he held the gun even more tightly.

"Let me ask you a question Jack," queried Locke, "Why are you so afraid?"

"Afraid, huh?"

"Yes Jack afraid. You're afraid of this place. It defies your reasoning. It challenges your belief. You know that this place is magical. You know we were brought here by fate. Isn't that why you want to leave so badly?"

"There is no such thing as fate or magic." screamed Jack.

"48 hours ago, I was lying in a ditch full of rotting carcasses unable to move my legs, with a bullet shot through me. And now I'm standing in front of you looking you eye to eye. How do you explain that, Jack?"

"Well John, I don't know about the ditch but you're soon gonna have a bullet shot through you again." Jack knew that he wasn't going to kill Locke, he was going to knock him out and take him to the beach camp so that he could keep an eye on him to make sure he does not create any further problems. Just then Jack heard a clicking sound, the sound slowly got louder until he saw a large calm of black smoke emerging from the row of trees in front of him.

"Jack run!!!" saying this Locke ran off. Jack followed him, jumping over the broken trees avoiding all the leaves that brushed his face as he ran. His heart thumping against his chest like it was about to burst out. Jack was too busy running even to look back to see if he had broken away from the monster but he could still hear the sound of trees ripping apart behind him. Suddenly Locke turned left for no apparent reason. _What's he doing? _Thought Jack in his head. But he nevertheless followed Locke. Locke was running about 7 feet ahead of from him. Jack noticed that this part of the island was different; the trees were much larger. They blocked sunlight making it feel like night. The path jack was running on was clear with not a single bush on it. Jack and Locke were running side by side now. Suddenly they emerged out of the darkness of the jungle. Jack felt his stomach sink, he didn't realize what was happening, he had a sensation that the earth has been pulled from under his feat. Then it all started to sink in; he was falling, he was falling into what looked like a cliff. He looked down and infact he was falling. Jack closed his eyes as his body accelerated towards the bottom of the cliff, he saw himself as a kid getting beaten up by the school bully, then he had a flash of his dad drinking, then him getting his medicine degree, he saw a flash of him doing his first surgery, then he saw quick flashes of Sarah on her wedding, Kate sewing up his wound, Juliet kissing him, then, finally he saw himself at the lying at the bottom of the 200 feet deep cliff in a pool of blood.

* * *

As Desmond was about to leave the looking glass through the moon pool he heard a groan. It was Bonnie she was still alive. Desmond moved up to her.

"Help me, please" she groaned.

"And why would I do that?" asked Desmond.

"Because, you're a good person and if you help me I could tell you everything about what Penny has been doing since you left. I know another way to contact her."

* * *

_**A/N**: This is my first fan fiction. Hopefully it doesn't suck. If you can, please review. I will be posting the second chapter soon._


	2. In One Day

_**A/N:**__**Everyone thanks for all the reviews. **__**You guys are awesome.**__** It took me a little longer to update than it normally would have because I had an exam yesterday and also because this chapter became way too long and I had to spend extra time editing out the extra stuff. After the end of this week my school is out and thus I should be able to update faster.**_

* * *

**4x02: In One Day**

(Flashback begins)

A young 8 year old boy was sitting in a dimly lit room staring out of the window. The room was small the only things to be found in the room were a small bed, an old table and a backpack. The weather outside was dark and rainy. The boy took out a sheet of paper from his backpack. He looked at it for a minute with disappointment, and then quickly shoved it back into the backpack as he heard the opening of the main door. He moved out of his room then went down the stairs flicking the light switch. This room in contrast with the boy's room was very well furnished. There were two large brand-new sofas and a shiny brown polished table. The boy looked as the door opened and woman in her late 20's entered. The woman looked pregnant, she removed her jacket and threw it carelessly on the floor, she then removed her shoes and socks and left them right there. She rushed into the room and lied on the sofa. She picked up the phone and started to dial a number. The boy moved towards the main entrance; he slowly picked up the jacket and neatly hung it in the adjoining closet. He then picked up the shoes and put them on the shoe rack. The woman was still talking on the phone.

"I can't believe my third trimester has started already. I mean I have not noticed a significant change in the way I feel. You know, women are supposed to go through all kinds of crazy things at this stage. I also got the ultrasound results; guess what it's a baby girl,"

The boy came into the room with a glass of water and a newspaper and kept it on the table. He stood there while the woman finished making the call. The woman hung up. She opened up the newspaper as she took a sip from the water from the glass without acknowledging the boy's presence. After a couple of minutes the boy spoke.

"Mom… err," said the boy nervously, "I was wondering if you could give me 15 quids; our school is organising a trip to a football match that is going to be held in the town in 2 weeks."

"No," she replied abruptly.

"Please… I have been looking forward to this for the past two months. Almost everyone in my class is going, I would feel left out."

"I said NO," she replied impatiently.

"It's only 15 quids, that kind of money is nothing for you," said the boy.

"I said no, Desmond," the woman for the first time looked Desmond in the eye, "when I say no. It means NO."

Desmond always got scared when his mother looked at him like that; it was a warning look that usually preceded her anger. Desmond started to move away, he muttered under his breath, "Its not everyday that I ask you for favours, the last time you got a gift or spent money on me was when I turned three and you bought me that second hand table. "

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me what did you just said," she yelled, "or you are going to be in deep trouble."

"I said that the last the last time you spent money on me was 5 years ago. I would have appreciated had you given me the money for the soccer game. The kids at school get all kinds of good stuff from their parents"

"Oh, so who do you think pays for all the food that you shove down into your pathetic little mouth at least twice a day?" Desmond's mom was very angry, "As for the money for the football game; go clean someone's garbage and earn the money yourself. You're just like your father, almost as useless as him. I don't know how I fell for a man like him. Get out of my sight before I further loose my temper and do something to you."

Desmond's eyes brimmed with tears; he ran up into his room.

(Flashback ends)

* * *

Desmond paddled his boat quickly towards the shore. Bonnie was lying on the boat too. 

"How's your wound"? he asked.

"It's getting better."

They reached the shore and Desmond hopped out of the boat.

"Your friend with the eye patch shot the boat pretty bad. I don't think we'll be able to use the boat to go to our beach camp. We're gonna have to walk from here on."

"Okay," said Bonnie as she moved out of the boat. Suddenly, she pulled a gun out of her pocket and pointed it at the back of Desmond's head.

"Stop right there," she said, "We're not going back to your beach. You are coming with me."

* * *

"So why do you want to stay on the island, all alone?" Kate asked Rousseau as they walked. 

"Living on the island and being alone is better than living in the outside world and being alone, isn't it?"

Kate though about those words, _what am I going to do after get off of this island? I have no one in the real world who cares for me. _Her thoughts were broken when she suddenly got a call on the SAT phone.

"Is anyone there?" came the voice from the other end.

"Hello?"

"Listen, it's going to take us another day to get to your island."

"But you told us that you were going to be here soon."

"Our ship has run out of supplies we are waiting for new supplies to arrive. We have your location locked so don't worry."

"Okay," said Kate hesitantly as she turned off the SAT phone.

"What did they say?" asked Claire.

"Apparently, they ran out of supplies, it's going to take them another day to reach the island," replied Kate.

As they walked a little further Kate realized something was different about this path. She gave Danielle a sharp look.

"This is not the way we came."

"I know," replied Danielle calmly.

"Huh? You're supposed to be leading us back to the beach."

"I am. This is a shortcut. Cuts the journey down by a few hours, and there is also a lot more interesting stuff to look at on the way." said Danielle as she pointed at what looked like a small wooden house.

"What is that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"You guys keep moving. I'll catch up with you in a few minutes," yelled Kate as she quickly ran towards the house. She reached the door only to realize there was no door. The structure was small, old and made up of wood. It looked like it had been abandoned long ago. Kate noticed that the outside wall was etched with

_sRoot(16, 64, 225, 256, 529, 1764)_

She walked into the structure, it was surprisingly well lit. There was only one room. There was paper all around. Kate noticed that most of the paper was filled with mathematical equations. There was a section in the room which had a large table and 3 chairs around it. Besides the table, on the wall there was a large chart. The chart had some things written on it. It looked more like sticky notes or jot notes. Although a lot of stuff of the chart was not readable as the ink had worn off of it. But Kate could make out some of the stuff she was looking at. But still none of it made sense to her

_Why cannot we accurately __theoretically the calculate EM field around this Island?_

_...Sector 8... controlled by hostiles... unique..._

_Cerberus experiment sheds some light on unique forces emanating from the island_

_Question of the millennium "What makes C.N Cyclop tick?"_

_...challenge...find the location... this…- J_

_Do the two rumored... exist?_

_What is the relationship between the island and the core values of the Valenzetti Equation?_

_New rumor has it...__...I refuse to believe it, why would DHARMA have 3 listening stations relevant to the project at 3 of the most random locations of the world._

Although a lot of pieces of information were missing Kate still could not make any sense of it. On the table there was an old letter. Kate opened it up.

_Hi J,_

_I have been working on the problem of finding the location of this island for 3 years now. I have been looking at constellations and stars every day, I also used the interference caused by the magnetic South & North Poles on this island, the wind currents and the weather patterns to judge where the island is located. I was so close to achieving my goal. However my equations don't seem to add up. This is going to sound really stupid but I have to divide the value that I calculated by 0 in order to get the coordinates of the island. I know its insane, dividing by 0 is a mathematical disaster. Something has to be wrong with my calculations; I am sending you a copy of my work in hopes that you could catch the error I'm making. By the way I haven't had an update from you in two weeks, is there any new news on your end?_

_Sincerely,_

_H_

_PS: Trying to crack the location of the island behind DHARMA's back is almost as fun the projects themselves._

Kate looked at the large sheet of paper attached to the letter. There were 9 pages all full of mathematical equations.Kate heard a tap on the window. She saw a bearded man standing outside; he was holding a piece of paper which said, "Do not do it, Kate." Kate, scared by this dropped the letter on the floor and ran out of the structure.

* * *

(Flashback begins) 

A young girl around 5 years old was crying loudly. Desmond's mom rushed into the room. The room was full of toys. It was a well decorated room. There were toys all around. Desmond's mom rushed over to the crying girl and gave her a hug.

"What's wrong, Fiona?" asked Desmond's mom.

Fiona pointed a finger at Desmond who was now much older, around 13 years and said, "He broke the new robot toy you got me." Then she burst into tears. Desmond's mother shot him a look which he interpreted as a mixture of anger and disgust. Desmond's mother lifted Fiona up and kissed her on the forehead. "Hey, it's okay." She said in a gentle voice, "Mommy is going to get you a new one, in fact I'm going to get you two new ones. Does that sound good?"

Desmond looked longingly at the way his mother cared for his sister. _Why can't she treat me in the same way? _He thought. Fiona had now stopped crying.

"Fiona, you sit here, mommy is going to deal with him," his mother said pointing toward Desmond.

"Don't hit him mommy, I don't like it when you hit him," said Fiona.

Desmond's mother smiled at Fiona and moved towards Desmond.

"Why did you break the girl's toy?" she asked in a very stern voice.

"I didn't mean to. It was an accident."

"Accident or not it is broken now. Maybe I should break your neck and call it an accident."

Desmond did not reply he stood there looking quietly at the floor.

"You know what Desmond, I hope your father would have taken you with him. My life would be a lot easier."

"Why do you treat me like this?"

"What?"

"What have I ever done to deserve this kind of treatment? It's like you have something personal against me?

"'_This kind of treatment?' _What are you talking about? You're not satisfied with being allowed to live under this roof?"

Desmond looked at her angrily and stomped out of the room.

"Desmond if you walk out of this room right now, you're in deep trouble," his mother shouted but Desmond still stomped out of the room.

Desmond's mom looked angrily at him walking out and turned over to Fiona. "Stay in this room, don't come out. I'll be back in 20 minutes with your milk, okay?"

She moved up the stairs picked up a large stick from besides the flower pot and opened the door to Desmond's room. It was almost the same as it had been 5 years ago; small dark with little furniture. Desmond was sitting in the corner the corner of the room weeping. Desmond's mom smacked Desmond on the head. He yelled and stood up. Then she gave him two blows on the leg. Desmond screamed in pain. She then pulled him by his hair.

"You're gonna be disrespectful again?" she barked.

Desmond did not reply.

"Are you gonna behave like that again?" she said as she smacked him on the leg with the stick.

"I hate you! I hope you die!" screamed Desmond, in pain.

This seemed to anger his mom even more. She threw away the stick and grabbed Desmond's throat. She began to choke him. He coughed as he tried to breath. His face started to turn blue. She kept choking him for a few moments. Finally his mom let go of his throat. Desmond quickly took deep breaths and coughed hard.

"Get out of the house Desmond or I'm gonna do something to you."

Desmond ran out of his room.

(Flashback ends)

* * *

Bonnie was pointing a gun at Desmond's head as they moved in the jumgle. 

"Listen, I really have to go back to my people right now. It's very important," said Desmond.

"Not more important than what I have to show you."

"You told me that you know of another way to contact Penny. Are you taking me to show that?"

"No. I lied. There is no other way to contact Penny. But I do know that she was looking for this place, looking for you."

"That's it?"

"Well, I know all your love history with her. Must say it's a good love story. I and Greta used to have fun going over all the files of your people. We particularly found yours like straight out of a romantic novel. Made for some great reading inside that boring station."

"Fascinating," said Desmond sarcastically.

Bonnie laughed, "So Desmond how was your time inside that hatch… the swan?"

"I pushed a button every 108 minutes for 3 years with a crazy man. The greatest time I ever had."

"Well I know a thing or two about living in a boring hatch with a crazy person."

"No offence sister but while I was in that hatch looking at you from the other room, you were the one who looked kinda crazy."

"Well, crazy is relative"

"Whatever. How far is this place you're taking me to?"

"Not too far."

* * *

(Flashback begins) 

Desmond's mother lay on the hospital bed, she was old now. A doctor came to check up on her.

"How're you feeling Aileen?" asked the doctor as he placed a stethoscope on her chest.

"Good," she said in a choked voice, "Thanks for saving me."

"Don't thank me Aileen thank him who gave you his bone marrow. You had Leukemia; we had a hard a time finding an exact match for your bone-marrow. If he hadn't showed up in time you'd probably be dead."

"Who is he?"

"He's standing outside. I'll send him in"

A few minutes later Desmond walked into the room. He was in his mid 20's. Aileen looked at him shocked.

"Desmond?" she spoke.

"Yeah," replied Desmond as he sat on the chair next to her table.

"I don't know… I don't know what to say," said Desmond's mother who was visibly shaken up.

"You don't have to."

After a long silent pause his mother spoke.

"Haven't seen you in about 7 years; you really look different."

Desmond smiled but did not say anything.

"Desmond, I really don't know how to thank you for this."

"You don't have to. Consider this repayment of all the money you spent on the food that I shoved down my throat at least twice a day for 13 years."

Desmond's mother did not reply there was a long awkward pause again.

"So why did you treat me like that?" asked Desmond breaking the silence, "When I was a kid I used to think you were one of those crazy parents they show on tv who do not know how to treat their kids well. But then Fiona came. At first I was scared for her, I was afraid that you were going to kill her when she cried all night. But you loved her. In fact you treated her like a princess. Why did you treat me like I was an unwanted piece of trash?"

"It was you dad. He left me when you were 1 year old. I had left my family for him. When he left me like that I felt cheated, I hated him to death. I had to take that hate out on someone. And in my eyes you represented him, you were his son too, you had the same last name as him, you even looked like him. His blood ran in your veins. Whenever I looked at you I saw his face."

Desmond shook his head. "That's it? That's it? You hated me because of my father? What was my fault in all that? The same blood is running inside you now, so you'll start hating yourself? What you did to me, no human being should do to another let alone their own flesh and blood."

"Desmond I'm-"

"Stop it. I don't want to talk about it," said Desmond wiping off his tears, "Where's Fiona?"

"She did not come. The doctors have been trying to contact her for 7 months. She could not leave her job to come here."

"Isn't that ironic?" laughed Desmond, "The only person who was there by you when you were on your deathbed was the same person you hated the most."

There was another awkward pause. After some time Desmond stood up to leave.

"I'm leaving," he said, "Hope I _don't_ see you in another life."

(Flashback ends)

* * *

Desmond and Bonnie now stood over a pit full of skeletons. 

"What's this?" asked Desmond."

"This is what I brought you here to show."

"What? You brought me here to show these dead bodies?"

"A few years ago our people killed all the members of the DHARMA Initiative. They called it 'The Purge'. About 40 people died, old, young, children, fathers, and mothers. One of them was Alan Hume. You know who he is Desmond, don't you? He is your real father. The one that your mom hated so much. Not the one you lived with when you ran away from home when you were 13."

Desmond stared at the pit. "One more thing," said Bonnie as she disappeared into the surrounding trees.

A few moments later she came back with a piece of paper and a locket.

"There is another pit behind the trees into which all the stuff of these people was dumped," she said as she gave the locket and the piece of paper to Desmond. Desmond looked at the locket it was engraved with letters A.H. He then opened up the letter and began to read it.

_Dear Desmond,_

_I apologize for leaving you and your mother. But that was something I had to do. That was something I had to do to get a job at the place I'm working. What I'm working on right now is changing the world. If you are reading this I have finally mustered the courage to send you his letter. I know no matter what I say it won't make all the difficulties you and your mother may have faced since I left disappear. But I deeply regret any inconvenience you and your mother may suffered._

_Love,_

_Alan_

"I read in your file that you always wanted to know more about your real father. You used to wish you had a father who would love you like your mom loved your sister Fiona. When you saved my life instead of letting me die a slow death in that station. I wanted to give you something back in return. This was the best I could manage. Your father's dead body will have a nametag on his shirt; do you want to take it out of the pit to bury it ceremoniously?" asked Bonnie.

"No, leave him there," said Desmond as he threw the paper and the locket back inside the pit, "He was coward."

"If you go south for 3 miles you will reach the ocean. Around the coastline in that area you will find a boat. We had it tied there in case of emergency. It will help you get to your people faster."

"What about you?"

"Your people are going to crucify me if they see me anywhere near their camp, especially after what happened to your rockstar friend. I'll stay back."

"Okay," said Desmond as he ran off south.

* * *

A dark haired man walked out of his dark office into a large hallway lit by fluorescent lights. The hallway was busy with people talking and walking. He walked for a while and then knocked at a door. 

"Come in," a female voice came from the inside.

He walked into the large bright office. A woman was sitting on the chair wearing a formal dress. She had dark hair and striking blue eyes. She looked in her 20's.

"I contacted them," said the man, "I told them that it will take us another day to come to their island."

"Good. One day should give us enough time to get all the guns, weapons and the ammunition ready," the woman said coolly.

"Do we really have to do this?"

"I think you understand why we have to do it, Minkowski. We spent 8 years looking for that island. You know how little the probability of us finding the location that island was. And if what we have heard about that place is even remotely true, we cannot afford to take any chances. Besides, everything we have to do now is so small that it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things."

"I know. You're right, Fiona."

"As always," Fiona smiled.

"And did I tell you how sexy that Scottish accent of yours sounds,"

"Okay," said Fiona trying to control her smile, "This is nor the time or the place to start flirting."

"Like I said; you're right. So let's get back to work."

"Okay. You shouldn't call them or reply to their calls unless specifically instructed," said Fiona in a serious tone, "Tomorrow night we are going to get to that Island. We are going to ask them to assemble at one place; our commandos are going to surround them from all the sides. Then we are going to kill them all."

**Next Chapter: The Caves**

_**A/N: I hope the chapter did not feel slow since it was kind of a transitional chapter. I think I can safely say that next chapter is going to very good and easily make up if you found this chapter to be slow. Please read & review.**_


	3. The Caves

**4x03: The Caves **

(Flash-forward Begins)

A tv was playing in the canteen of a hospital. The tv showed a stage where an announcer was speaking excitedly. He finally said in a loud voice.

"Please welcome the two sole remaining survivors of Oceanic flight 815. First, Mr. Jack Shepherd."

Jack walked in reluctantly from the curtain behind the stage. He sat on his chair behind the large table as he looked at photographers taking pictures of him. The announcer spoke again.

"And now please welcome the second survivor; Mr John Lanthem."

Slowly Ben emerged out of the curtain. He gave Jack a strange look and sat down next to him.

(Flash-Forward ends)

* * *

Jack opened his eyes; he felt water being thrown on his face. It was Locke he was throwing water out of his bottle at Jack's face.

"Locke, what happened?"

"You awake Jack? You fell down from the edge of the cliff or whatever it is, half way down you were caught by a tree. I tried to come down to help you but before I could the tree broke and you fell down here."

Jack looked around him it was a strange sight. It was not a normal cliff. It looked like a piece of land had been dug out to more than 200 feet. It was a giant pit it extending about 500 metres in each direction and more than 200 feet high.

"How long have I been knocked out?"

"Several hours."

Jack put his hand in his pockets looking for the gun.

"Don't worry about it, Jack. I have it with me," said Locke pulling the gun out of his pocket.

Jack groaned. He tried to stand up; he felt intense pain in his arm.

"Looks like my arm's fractured."

"Well, you should consider yourself luck that you have only a fractured arm after falling from that height. How was it?"

"How was what?"

"What did you feel when you were falling down?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"You survived falling from that height with just a broken arm. The island healed you. When I got healed by the island it told me what I had to do. So what did you see?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "My life flashed before my eyes. Needless to say I was bored," said Jack sarcastically.

"Where are you going?" he asked as he saw Locke move in the other direction.

"Getting out of this place."

"Well John, the edge of the cliff from where I fell is right here. We are gonna have to climb from here."

"You wanna climb all the way up to there with a broken arm, be my guest. There has to be another way out of here, it is clear this place was manually dug up, whatever people were doing down here chances are they had a more efficient way to get out of here."

* * *

(Flash-forward begins)

Ben and Jack were sitting in a restaurant having a cup of coffee.

"Did you find a way yet?" asked Jack taking a sip from his coffee.

"No," replied Ben.

"Why is it taking so long? It's been 6 months already."

"Jack, you need to understand that chances of me being successful in finding the island again are next to impossible."

"No. You're gonna find a way to get me back there."

"There is no way, Jack. Once you enter the real world again your chances of finding that island disappear."

"Then how did your people came back and forth from the island freely?"

"That was different. We had a two way channel open."

"Keep trying to find it. We will get back there and rectify everything."

(Flash-forward ends)

* * *

Sawyer was cleaning the debris from the dynamite explosion when he saw Kate leading the rest of the group back to the camp. As they walked toward the beach Sun ran toward Jin and gave him a hug. Sawyer saw Danielle pulling Ben by a rope, moving behind Kate, he moved up to them; Kate gave him an angry look and moved forward without talking to him. Sawyer rolled his eyes and muttered _Come on._

"Well, well, well," said Sawyer as he moved up to Ben, "How the mighty have fallen."

"Hello James," said Ben.

"Hey Bernard," said Sawyer turning his neck toward Bernard who was talking to rose and then turning it back toward Ben, "even though its useless now but if you still want to make your damn S.O.S sign for some closure; we've got ourselves a little prisoner to break rocks for you."

"Where should I tie him up?" asked Danielle.

"Ask Captain Iraq that. This is his area of expertise."

As Kate was walking toward her tent she got stopped by Juliet.

"Where's Jack?" asked Juliet trying to look for Jack in the group.

"Didn't Sayid tell you? He went somewhere."

"What do you mean he went somewhere?"

"I mean he did not come back with us."

As soon as Juliet heard that, she started putting water bottles in her bag.

"Where are _you _going?" asked Kate.

"I'm going to find Jack."

"You're not going anywhere."

"Excuse me?"

"I said you're _not _going anywhere."

"And since when are you giving orders around here?"

"Since when do you care about Jack that much? 20 days ago you were ready to kill all of us."

"I owe it to him. And if you don't care about Jack, it doesn't mean I don't care about him either."

"Oh that's right. I went to your camp to get Jack back and I don't care about him?"

"You can't sop me."

"Wait a minute," interjected Sawyer. He looked toward Juliet and said, "Listen Elektra, Jack is a big boy. He doesn't need you looking after him. Where are you going to look for him anyways?"

"Sawyer is right," commented Sayid, "The rescue ship coming tomorrow night. If he is not back by the time the ship arrives I will personally go with you to find him. We're not leaving him behind."

Juliet seemed to have dropped the idea of going back for Jack. She threw her bag on the ground and started walking toward her tent. Kate followed the trend and started moving toward her tent.

"What, you ain't gonna thank me for sticking up for you, freckles?" asked Sawyer.

Kate did not reply and kept walking toward her tent. _Damn it_, mumbled Sawyer.

Sayid saw Danielle walking toward the jungle.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Home."

"We're coming with you," said Alex standing besides Karl.

"Come along."

* * *

"What place is this?" Jack asked rubbing his eyes. They were standing on the opposite side from where Jack had felled looking at a black door with an octagon on it. The octagon had words written through it in red.

_Authorised personnel only_

"We are about to find out," said Locke as he opened the door. They walked into a dark passageway. As they walked suddenly the lights came on. The passageway they were walking in was about 8 feet high and 5 feet wide. The walls were natural made up of molten rocks.

"Looks like some kind of a cave," commented Locke as he investigated the roof. As they walked a little further, they saw the cave diverge into two. The left side on its wall had a large octagon on its middle was a sideways illustration of a human skull. _Another Dharma logo,_ Locke thought as he moved in the direction the logo pointed.

"Why are you going that side? How do you know you are moving in the right direction?" asked Jack.

"You want to go your way feel free to do so."

In front of Locke was a large steel door having a logo of a sideways illustration of the human head inside an octagon. Lock pushed opened the door and walked into a small room. In one corner of the room a small red light was blinking rapidly. There was T.V and a V.C.R and a tape lying on a table. Locke moved up the table and picked up the tape; it read _Introduction. _Locke looked at Jack who was starting at the blinking red light. He dusted off the tape and slowly inserted it inside the V.C.R and switched on the T.V. At first the screen was black slowly it transitioned to a room where a man wearing a white coat was standing. Locke recognized him from the swan and the pearl orientation videos. The video was very choppy. He started speaking.

_Welcome. _I am Dr. Marvin Candle and this is your introduction film for station 7 of the DHARMA Initiative known as _The Temple _The Temple is one of the two secret DHARMAstations the location and the purpose of which is only known to me, The DeGroots, Alvar Hanso and a few selected members of DHARMA Initiative. If you are watching this video than you are about to know the function of The Temple, it is imperative that you keep it a secret because any information leak can have grave consequences for everyone. Remember that this station is the most important of all the stations on the island. Until your duty is over you will be living in secluded quarters away from rest of the members of the DHARMA Initiative. That is it for now. Soon you will have a senior member of the DHARMA initiative explain your duty with respect to this station. On behalf of the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso, and all of us at the DHARMA Initiative, thank you, namaste, and... good luck.

"What do you think of it?" Locke asked Jack as the video ended.

"What do I think of it? I think that we need to get the hell out of this place and this is obviously a dead end and if we-"

"shhhh," whispered Locke cutting Jack off.

They heard footsteps and talking noises from the other side of the door they had just entered. Suddenly the door flung open. Richard Alpert stood there with about 30 more people with him.

"Locke, what are you doing here?" asked Richard moving in to the room, "We thought you died."

Locke laughed, "Well Richard, your glorious leader tried to kill me but the island healed me again."

"It's good to see you John," commented Richard.

"What should we do with him?" asked a man standing behind Richard poining toward Jack.

"Let him stay here, for now." replied Richard.

"So what is this place and what are you doing here?" Locke asked Richard.

"Well, we are about to find out," said Richard as he played the tape.

Richard and all his people started looking frantically around the room after watching the video. Richard was shaking his head. Jack noticed that one of the people with Richard was Cindy. She nodded at him as she walked past.

"What's going on Richard?" asked Locke confused by all this activity.

"Everyone stop!" yelled Richard, "This is a joke. He lied to us."

All the others started whispering with each other.

"What's going on Richard?" asked Locke trying to get Richard's attention.

"Where is Ben?" screamed Richard staring Jack in the face, "He went to find your people. Where is he?"

"We've got him," said Jack staring back at Richard, "Don't bother trying to get him. I called the rescue ship, by now the rescue has arrived and they are all off the island."

"No one's getting rescued," said Richard in a matter of fact way, "Brian, call Ben on his walkie talkie."

Brian pushed some buttons on his walkie talkie and handed it over to Richard. After a few seconds a female voice spoke on the other end.

"Who's this?" the voice asked.

"Austin, hand over the walkie talkie to Ben,"

"Don't do it Kate," Jack yelled at top of his lungs.

"We have got Jack. If you don't handover the walkie talkie to Ben, we will kill him."

"I'm not giving it to anyone."

Richard brought the walkie talkie close to Jack's mouth and sent a signal with his eye to Brian. Brian moved forward and twisted Jack's broken arm. Jack yelled in pain.

"I'm asking you one more time. Hand over the walkie talkie to Ben or he dies."

"Wait! I'm giving it to him,"

After a few moments Ben spoke on the other end.

"Who's this?"

"This is Richard, we are inside the temple," replied Richard.

"Did you find it?"

"There's nothing down here. Nothing. You lied to us."

"No Richard, Jacob told me that we will find the solution to our problems there."

"Shut up, Ben! You lied to us! You failed. Your people who went to the beach are dead. You failed to stop them from calling the invaders. You failed." saying this Richard turned off the walkie talkie.

"Richard, you're coming to get me right?" asked Ben frantically. No voice came from the other end.

"Brian, get ready to leave. If start right now we can reach their beach camp by dawn."

"So you want to start another war? Guess what all of your people who went to the beach are dead. There are more of us than there are of you. You're going to-"

"We're not going out there to start a war with your people. We have to take action against those people who are coming to the island and if your people are really who we think they are, we could definitely use their help."

* * *

It was late night-early morning time now. The stars were shining dimly in the sky. A cool breeze was blowing. Desmond docked his boat by the beach and ran toward the camp. He ran up to Sayid who was sitting outside his tent.

"Desmond? Where's Charlie?" he asked.

"Not Penny's boat!"

"What?"

"It's not Penny's boat!"

Everyone heard he noise Desmond was making and woke up. Claire saw him and ran up to him.

Where's Charlie?" she asked.

"He didn't make it," said Desmond reluctantly.

"What?" asked Claire with a heavy voice.

"He died trying to make sure that you leave the island"

Claire was in shock she did not say anything just sat on the ground looking down.

All the survivors now surrounded Desmond as he explained them everything.

"Even if it's not your girl's boat, that doesn't mean anything. For all we know they could be part of the original rescue team." said Sawyer.

"Then why did she lie to us?" asked Desmond

"I hate to say so but I told you so." shouted Ben who was tied to some wreckage.

"You know who these people are, bug eye?" asked Sawyer.

"Like I told Jack; these people have been trying to find the island for a long time. If they reach here they will kill every single one of us," replied Ben, "They're the bad guys."

"Is he telling the truth?" asked Sawyer looking in the direction of Juliet.

"Don't look at me," she replied, "I was not high enough in the hierarchy to know things like this."

"Listen to me," interjected Ben, "I know you want to get off this island but these people are not here to rescue you. If you want to live you should get as far away from his beach as possible."

"Oh so now we should trust you," said Sawyer as went close to Ben and knocked him out with a punch, "every time you open your mouth you lie. Now that you are saying that these people are not rescue I'm certain they are rescue."

"Who they really are doesn't really matter," said Sayid, "We have to be prepared for the worst case scenario."

"What do you suggest?"

"I think before we give these people our location or go in front of them we must make sure that they are legit only then should we go in front of them."

"And where are we going to hide?" asked Sawyer.

"We should go inland. I'm sure we could find a habitable place in the jungle where we'd be much harder to detect than staying in the open here."

"I'm not going anywhere," declared Claire, "Charlie died trying to get us off the island. I'm not going to let your paranoia cloud his sacrifice."

"She's right," said Sun, "We cannot let this opportunity for getting rescued pass. Me and Jin are not going"

"Staying here is madness," said Kate eyeing Sun and Claire, "We cannot just sit here and hope everything ends up being perfect. Like Sayid said we have to be prepared for the worst."

Everyone one in the camp started whispering to each other, it seemed like everyone was aligning them either to stay there and wait for the rescue or to hide.

"What do you think?" Kate asked Sawyer.

"Well," he said pointing toward Sayid, "The man has very good instincts."

While they were standing there they heard ruffling among the leaves. Sayid pulled out his gun. Jack walked out of the jungle followed by Locke, Richard and 2 others.

"Jack!" said Kate running toward him.

"We come here in peace," said Richard looking at Sayid who was pointing his gun at him.

"Peace?"

"We're not your enemies. There have been some misunderstandings but-"

"You call kidnapping children and pregnant women from our camps misunderstanding?"

"It's interesting that you guys believe that you are the moral authority on this island," said Richard, "We only killed 2 of your people whereas you killed more than 14 of us. All the people we took are alive and happy. Can you say the same thing about the people you killed?"

"It's called self defence."

Richard laughed. "Brian, Logan throw all your guns on the ground," he said.

Sayid looked at them confused.

"We're here for peace, Jarrah," said Richard lifting up his arms, "We want to help you and you to help us in turn."

"He's right, Sayid," said Locke, "Trust me; I wouldn't do anything to hurt our people."

"Oh… that interesting," quipped Sawyer, "Coming from a man who killed Naomi and who tried to stop us from getting off the island."

"For a very good reason," replied Locke, "Trust me, we have a plan, but you have to get away from the beach and come with us right now."

"Come with you where?" asked Sayid.

"To the temple," replied Richard, "There are underground caves in that place and there is a very large storage area that could hold more than 500 people. Big enough for us."

"None of us are going anywhere," yelled Jack, "We are gonna stay here and wait for he rescue."

"But its not Penny's team, said Desmond.

"That doesn't matter. They will rescue us. We will stay right here."

"I don't think that's a very good idea, Jack" said Sayid.

"I agree," said Kate

"What?" asked Jack with a frown on his face, "You don't want to get rescued?"

"We do," answered Sawyer, "We just don't think it's a very good idea to rush into it."

"FINE!!" yelled Jack, "If you don't want to be rescued feel free to go where ever you want. But I am going to stay here with anyone who wants to get the hell off of this island. "

Saying this Jack walked toward his tent. Sayid and Sawyer looked at each other. They picked up the guns the others had thrown down and walked toward the bushes followed by Kate.

"Do you trust them?" Sawyer asked Sayid.

"I don't know."

"What should we do? Go to the place Locke and Mr. Mascara want us to go?"

"For now; no. We should go inland. There will be a lot of people who would want to stay here with Jack. I will hide around these bushes to make sure they are okay and help them if there in any trouble. If the people who are coming are really here to rescue us I will come back to you to get everyone."

"But where are we going to go?" asked Kate.

"What about the Black Rock?"

"What about it?"

"From what you've told me about it, it is located in a very secluded part of the island. You could lead everyone there and set up a camp."

Kate, Sawyer and Sayid finished their conversation and walked up toward Richard and Locke.

"Had your little meeting?" asked Richard.

"Yeah, we ain't coming with you too this temple you're talking about. At least not for now. Although some of us are getting away from the beach."

"Okay," replied Richard, "Locke will stay with you. In case you change your mind he could lead you to the temple."

Saying this Richard started to walk toward the jungle.

"Wait," Sawyer stopped him, "Are you not even going to ask to get bug eye back?"

"No, he's dead as far as we are concerned," saying this Richard and his men walked into the jungle.

"We should start organising right now if want to leave in a few hours." said Kate as she went in the middle to address the whole group.

"Listen everyone," she said loudly, "If you want to leave with us to the black rock, come here and let us know and get your things ready we are planning to leave in a couple of hours." By now Jack had walked out his tent. He was looking at Kate with tired eyes as he counted about 20 people walking toward Kate and about 14 walking toward him. Among the people who were staying with Jack were Juliet, Sun, Jin, Claire, Aaron, Melinda and Trevor; a young couple who had been bickering about the decision and some other people.

The rest moved toward Kate.

* * *

(Flash-forward Begins)

Jack pressed the bell of a large house and waited for the door to open. After a few seconds the door opened and Kate stood there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with urgency.

"I need to talk."

"Come in," she said, "Long time no see, last time I saw you was on T.V a year and a half ago. Why were you giving those interviews with Ben?"

"They wanted us talk to the press to settle this plane crash story once for all. Somehow the press had gotten a clue that they found a survivors from our plane. Before the press tried to investigate more and found out something they are not supposed to, we gave them what they want. A false story."

"hmm… so why are you here?"

"Ben has been unable to find the island. It's been almost 2 years now since we left that place."

"And you're telling me this because?"

"Me and Ben… I mean John Lanthem are going to Thailand as a last ditch effort. I was thinking if you wanted to come with us?"

"I can't. I have a family now. What am I going to say to Kevin?"

Jack stared at her smiling sarcastically. "You know what happened on that island Kate and you're worrying about what Kevin will think?"

"It's over Jack. There's nothing we can do about it. What's done is done."

"How do you live with yourself," muttered Jack.

Kate started to cry. Jack kicked the sofa and moved close to her and hugged her. She held on to Jack tightly as she said, "Every single day I think about what happened there. I can't live like this anymore. I want to kill myself. Maybe I, you and Ben are being punished. Maybe we are all supposed to die too."

"Don't say that Kate. There is still hope," said Jack as he began to kiss Kate. The kissed each other passionately forgetting all their worries until Kate's phone rang and she pulled away from Jack and ran upstairs to take the call. Jack slowly walked out of the main door looking at Kate's room.

(Flash-forward ends)

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. R & R please.**

**Next Chapter: Judgement.**


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